EggXpert

It absolutely drives me crazy at how many people use wireless.  I understand why.  Wireless got its foot in the door first.  It wasn't until the beginning of 2007 when the powerline products hit the market.  For those of you who do not know what powerline is, watch this video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=NoBYr3EzkPw  Here is a guide to help you know if you want to go wireless or powerline.

 Devices like ipods, mp3 players, and PDAs all need wifi.  If you store your songs on your computer and want to go out and cut the grass to listen to your songs on your ipod, it is pretty inconvenient to run a power cord from your house almost to your street.  I might be exaggerating here, but you get the idea.  WIFI is also good for the people who want the absolute mobility with their laptops.

 Powerline is great for connecting things like desktops, playstations, wiis, xboxes, etc to your network.  Even most laptop users will do just fine with powerline.  I recommend powerline to everybody who does not absolutely need wireless, especially to novice users.  There are too many people with wide open wireless networks.

 I am sure most of you already know what powerline is.  I wish more novice computer users who do not go on here knew what it is.

 

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Here is the video

Edited by Tracer76 

 

 

I agree it should catch on, but the major downside to it is the module's are like 100 bucks a peice. Its cheaper to just get a pci adapter in most cases.

great network adapter,,i've been using two Linksys for over a year now,,not one hickup, and nice fast connection,,,,i beleive i only payed around a $100 for the pair i'm using,,and shortly i'm gonna get two more for the two new rigs i'm putting online,,,,yea, it's a little more than wireless,,,but imoa they are a whole lot better,,,,if you can tho,,try to plug 'em directly into the wall outlets, instead of a power adapter or extension cord,,,,altho one of mine is plugged into a cord adapter,,,but they suggest not to hook 'em to a surge protector, and to plug directly into wall socket,,,,

I've been using the Linksys Plus10bv2 over 3 yrs now, purchased from where else . I bought them when I was renting a 2 story house so hardlining my kid's comp upstairs wasn't a very good option at the time.

Now that we own a home we still use them for the kid's and they have great upload/dowmload speeds depending on your service of course. I don't use wifi except on the laptop while on the road. The home system is all wired. Like you & the others said it is the cost but IMHO it's a small one if your concerned about your network security.  

skwira001:

It absolutely drives me crazy at how many people use wireless.  I understand why.  Wireless got its foot in the door first.  It wasn't until the beginning of 2007 when the powerline products hit the market.

Powerline has been around for at least 10 years now (see this article for a reference).  I remember as a kid, we didn't want to wire up our house, and wireless was neither mainstream nor affordable.  We were considering PNA (phone line) and powerline.  We went with phone line, since powerline at that time was much too slow.  Powerline hasn't been competetive until recently, with the advent of PowerPacket.

I agree with the author's point that if you don't "need" wireless, don't get it.  However, a lot of people are buying notebooks instead of desktops now, and are going to want the freedom that comes with wireless networking.  What we need to see is better notification for the end user on the importance of securing his/her wireless network.  Perhaps new unsecured wifi routers should load a nag screen prompting users to secure their network, or something similar.

The other thing I worry about with powerline is backward compatibility.  With wireless, 802.11 b/g/n (and usually a) devices virtually always play nice on each others networks.  Will this be true of powerline?  When the next generation comes out, will users have to upgrade all of their hardware at once to get higher throughput and keep all devices on the network?  I'm not saying they won't, but there's less incentive (smaller user base) for power line networking companies to ensure backwards compatibility than there is for wireless.  I doubt this will change anytime soon.  The trend is definitely towards wireless, and powerline will shift more and more towards a niche market.

yeah it is just really expensive u could buy 5 wireless routers for $200

It looks cool. But the cost for building up powerline solution is a bit high.